Impact Assessment

The New Jersey State Planning Commission
is now in the process of updating New Jersey’s State
Development and Redevelopment Plan. The New Jersey State
Planning Act (N.J.S.A. 52:18A-196 et. seq.) requires that
an Impact Assessment Study of a Draft Final State Plan be
performed and the results of the study made available before
adoption of a Final State Plan. The purpose of the Impact
Assessment is to identify desirable changes, if any, to
be incorporated into the State Plan prior to its adoption
or re-adoption. The Impact Assessment is to describe the
impacts of fully implementing the policies and strategies
proposed in the 2005 Draft Final State Plan (“Plan
scenario”) relative to the impacts that would most
likely occur with the continuation of current (2004) trends
in the absence of the 2005 Draft Final State Plan (“Trend
scenario”).

Pursuant to the State Planning Act, the State Planning
Commission is also required to [..] “Prepare and adopt
as part of the State Plan a long-term Infrastructure Needs
Assessment, which shall provide information on present and
prospective conditions, needs and costs with regard to State,
county and municipal capital facilities, including water,
sewerage, transportation, solid waste, drainage, flood protection,
shore protection and related capital facilities” (N.J.S.A.
52:18A-199.b).

Executive
Summary [pdf 780k]
The Costs and Benefits of Alternative Growth Patterns:
The Impact Assessment of the New Jersey State Plan
(entire document) ZIP
file [zip 20.3M] of PDF files.

Prepared by
Robert W. Burchell, Ph.D., William R. Dolphin,
Catherine C. Galley
Center for Urban Policy Research, Edward J. Bloustein School
of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, the State University
of New JerseyWith the assistance ofRichard K. Brail, Ph.D., Edward J. Bloustein
School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, the State
University of New Jersey; Alex Zakrewski, Center for Urban
Policy Research, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning
and Public Policy, Rutgers, the State University of New
Jersey; Nancy C. Neuman, Ph.D., Sandstone Environmental
AssociatesReviewed by
John Epling, D.P.A., The Epling Corporation; Charles
L. Siemon, Esq., Siemon Larsen and Marsh; David
Slater, Hammer Siler George Associates; James C. Nicholas,
Ph.D., Univeristy of Florida; Neil Muller, Muller
Bohlin Associates

Many participants in the initial State Planning process
were supportive of the goals of the State
Planning Act, but worried that the costs may be too
great to absorb. The New Jersey Legislature responded
to these concerns by amending the Act in 1989 to provide
for an assessment of the Plan's impacts. Because the Plan
would be designed to achieve a number of conflicting goals,
the Legislature acted to include impacts on the State's
fiscal, economic, environmental, housing, infrastructure,
intergovernmental coordination and quality of life feature
in the study. In 1990, the Center
for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University assembled
a team of academic and private sector experts in these
areas and, after exhaustive research and computer modeling,
their findings, published in 1992, supported the Plan's
policy recommendations.

The researchers found that compared to a continuation
of current development patterns, by the year 2010, implementation
of the State Plan could save $700 million in road costs,
$562 million in water supply and sewer infrastructure
costs, $178 million in school capital facilities, and
up to $380 million per year in operating costs to local
governments and school districts during this planning
period.

By the year 2010, when compared to a continuation of
current development patterns, implementation of the State
Plan can also result in significant improvements to natural
resources and the environment by protecting an additional
30,000 acres of environmentally fragile lands, preserving
40,000 additional acres of farmland, and reducing water
pollutants by 40%.